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Limbo is a Catholic concept for those who cannot be assigned to heaven or hell. It is controversial and debated by theologians. Limbo of the Fathers is a temporary state for the righteous who died before Christ, while Limbo of the Children is a permanent state used to explain the fate of unbaptized infants. The word limbo is also used in a non-religious context to refer to an intermediate state.
Limbo is a concept that arose in the Catholic Church to explain those dead who cannot be clearly assigned to heaven or hell according to Catholic doctrine. The idea is controversial even among Catholics, and most other Christians do not accept it at all. Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, limbo has been much discussed and debated by theologians. In essence, he is an intermediary between Heaven and Hell, outside the presence of God but free from the torment associated with Hell.
According to Catholic doctrine, only those who accept Christ’s gift of salvation and are baptized can enter Heaven and live eternally in God’s presence. This becomes problematic in the case of those who for whatever reason are unable to meet these requirements during their lifetime, though they haven’t done anything offensive enough to be comfortably consigned to Hell. There are two main categories of limbo: limbus patrum or “Limbo of the Fathers” and limbus infantium or “Limbo of the children”.
The Limbo of the Fathers is a temporary state in which the righteous who died before the coming of Christ spent their afterlife until Christ’s death opened Heaven to humanity. This belief is sometimes associated with the belief that Christ spent the three days between his death and his resurrection preaching to the souls of the dead and delivering those who belonged to Heaven from their present state. The Limbo of the Fathers applies to Old Testament heroes like Abraham and Moses, for example.
Limbo of the Children is both the most controversial branch and the best known to those outside the Catholic Church. Unlike the Limbo of the Fathers, the Limbo of the Children is often described as a permanent state. This is used to explain young children dying without being baptized. This dilemma is related to the Catholic belief in original sin, the sinfulness with which all human beings are born as a result of the fall of Adam described in the second and third chapters of Genesis. According to Catholic thought, baptism is necessary to remove original sin, and one cannot enter Heaven in a state of sin of any kind, be it original or personal.
Many Catholics over the centuries have been troubled by the implications of original sin and baptism on the souls of infants who clearly have no personal sin, but die without being baptized. Many theories have been advanced to reconcile this issue with the Catholic belief in the essentially loving and forgiving nature of God, one of which is limbo. Some Catholic theologians describe it as a state of perfect natural bliss, as distinct from the supernatural bliss known in Heaven.
The word limbo is often used in a non-religious context to refer to any kind of intermediate, neutral state in which nothing really good or bad happens. In this sense, it can be a sort of stagnation or a waiting period with no clear end point.
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